13. CHAPTER 13.
CHAPTER 13.
Several ways by which the bringing forth of conceived Sin is obstructed.
BEFORE we proceed to the remaining evidences of the power and efficacy of the law of sin, we will take occasion from what has been delivered, to divert to one consideration that offers itself from that Scripture which was made the basis and foundation for our discourse of the general deceitfulness of sin, namely, James 1:15.154 The apostle tells us that “lust conceiving, brings forth sin.” This seems to intimate that whatever sin is conceived, that is what is brought forth. Now, placing the conception of sin, as we have done, in the consent of the will to it, and reckoning, as we should, that bringing forth sin consists of its actual commission, we know that these do not necessarily follow one another. There is a world of sin conceived in the womb of the wills and hearts of men that is never brought forth. Our present business, then, will be to inquire why that comes to pass. I answer, then —
1. That this is not so, is no thanks to sin or the law of sin. What it conceives, it would bring forth; the fact that it does not, is for the most part, just a small abatement of its guilt. A determinate will to actually sin, is actual sin.155 There is nothing lacking on sin’s part that every conceived sin is not actually accomplished. The obstacle and prevention lies on another hand.
2. There are two things that are necessary in the creature who has conceived sin, to bring it forth — first, Power; secondly, Continuance in the will to sin, until it is perpetrated and committed. Where these two are found, actual sin will unavoidably ensue. It is evident, therefore, that what hinders conceived sin from being brought forth, must affect either the power or the will of the sinner. This must be from God; and he has two ways of doing it:
(1.) By his providence, whereby he obstructs the power to sin.
(2.) By his grace, whereby he diverts or changes the will to sin.
I don’t mention these ways of God’s dispensations distinctly, as though one of them were always without the other; for there is much of grace in providential administrations, and there is much of the wisdom of providence seen in the dispensations of grace. But I distinguish them, because they appear most eminent in it. Providence is most eminent in outward acts respecting the power of the creature; grace, whether common or special, is most eminent in internal efficacy respecting his will. We will begin with the first: —
(1.) When sin is conceived, the Lord obstructs its production by his providence, in taking away or cutting short that power which is absolutely necessary to bring forth or accomplish it; as —
[1.] Life is the foundation of all power, the principle of operation; when that ceases, all power ceases with it. Even God himself, to evince the everlasting stability of his own power, gives himself the title of “The living God.” Now, he frequently obviates the power to actually execute sin by cutting short and taking away the lives of those who have conceived it. Thus he dealt with the army of Sennacherib when, just as he purposed, so he threatened that “the LORD would not deliver Jerusalem out of his hand,” 2Kng 18:35.156 God threatens to cut short his power, so that he would not execute his intent, chap. 19:28;157 and he accordingly performs this, by taking away the lives of his soldiers, verse 35,158 without whom it was impossible for Sennacherib’s conceived sin to be brought forth.
Moses excellently sets forth this providential dispensation in the obstruction of conceived sin, in the case of Pharaoh:
Exodus 15:9-10, “The enemy said, I will pursue, I will overtake, I will divide the spoil; my lust will be satisfied upon them; I will draw my sword, my hand shall destroy them. You blew with your wind, and the sea covered them: they sank like lead, in the mighty waters.”
Sin’s conception is fully expressed, and just as full a prevention is annexed to it. In the same way, he dealt with the companies of fifties and their captains who came to apprehend Elijah, 2Kng 1:9-12. Fire came down from heaven and consumed them when they were ready to take him. And various other instances of the same nature might be recalled. We have what is of universal concern in that great providential alteration which put a period to the lives of men. Men living hundreds of years had a long season in which to bring forth the sins they conceived; therefore the earth was filled with violence, injustice, and rapine,159 and “all flesh corrupted their way,” Genesis 6:12, 13.160 To prevent a similar inundation of sin, God shortens the course of the pilgrimage of men on the earth, and reduces their lives to a much shorter measure.
Besides this general law, God daily cuts off persons who had conceived much mischief and violence in their hearts, and thus He prevents its execution: “Blood-thirsty and deceitful men do not live out half their days.” Psalms 55:23 They would still have much work to do, if only they had space given to them to execute the bloody and sinful purposes of their minds. The psalmist tells us, Psalms 146:4, “In the day that the breath of man goes forth, his thoughts perish:”
He had many schemes about sin, but now they are all cut off. So also,
Ecclesiastes 8:12-13, “Though a sinner does evil a hundred times, and his days are prolonged, yet I surely know that it will be well with those who fear God, who fear before him. But it will not be well with the wicked, nor will he prolong his days, which are like a shadow; because he does not fear before God.”
However long a wicked man lives, yet he dies judicially, and he will not abide to do the evil he had conceived. But now, seeing that we have granted that even believers themselves may conceive sin through the power and the deceitfulness of it, it may be inquired whether God ever thus obviates its production and accomplishment in them, by cutting off and taking away their lives, so they will not be able to perform it. I answer —
1st. That God does not judicially cut off and take away the life of any of his own for this end and purpose: that he may thereby prevent the execution or bringing forth of any particular sin that he conceived, and which he would have perpetrated without taking it away; for —
(1st.) This is directly contrary to the very declared end of the patience of God towards them, 2 Peter 3:9.161 This is the very end of the longsuffering of God towards believers: that before they depart from here, they may come to the sense, acknowledgment, and repentance of every known sin. This is the constant and unchangeable rule of God’s patience in the covenant of grace; it is so far from being an encouragement to sin, that it is a motive for universal watchfulness against it — it’s of the same nature as all gospel grace, and of mercy in the blood of Christ. Now, this dispensation which we speak of, would lie in direct contradiction to that.
(2dly.) This also flows from the former: that whereas conceived sin contains the whole nature of it, as our Saviour declares at large in Matthew 5 — and being cut off under the guilt of sin in order to prevent its further progress, argues for a continuance in the purpose of it without repentance — it can only be that those who are judicially cut off this way must perish forever. But God does not deal so with his own; he does not throw away the people whom he foreknew.Romans 8:29 And this is why David prays for the patience of God mentioned before, that it might not be so with him: Psalms 39:13, “O spare me, that I may recover strength, before I go from here, and am no more.” Yet —
2dly. There are some cases in which God may and does take away the lives of his own, to prevent the guilt they would otherwise be involved in; such as —
(1st.) In the approach of some great temptation and trial upon the world. God knowing that particular ones of his would not be able to withstand it and hold out against it, but would dishonor him and defile themselves, he may, and doubtless often does, take them out of the world, to take them out of its way: Isaiah 57:1, “The righteous is taken away from the evil to come;” — not only the evil of punishment and judgment, but the evil of temptations and trials, which often proves much the worse of the two. Thus a captain in war may call a soldier away from his watch and guard when he knows that he isn’t able, through some infirmity, to bear the stress and force of the enemy that is coming upon him.
(2dly.) In case they are engaged in any way that is not acceptable to him, through ignorance or not knowing his mind and will. This seems to have been the case of Josiah. And, doubtless, the Lord oftentimes proceeds this way with his own. When any of his own are engaged in ways that do not please him, through the darkness and ignorance of their minds — so that they may not proceed to further evil or mischief — he calls them away from their station and employment, and takes them to himself; there they will err and mistake no more. But, in ordinary cases, God has other ways to divert his own from sin than by killing them, as we will see afterward.
[2.] God providentially hinders bringing forth conceived sin, by taking away and cutting short the power of those who conceived it. So that, even though their lives continue, they won’t have the power that makes it possible for them to execute what they had intended, or to bring forth what they had conceived. We also have various instances of this. This was the case with the builders of Babel in Genesis 11. Whatever they aimed at in particular, it was done in pursuit of a design of apostasy from God. One thing requisite to accomplishing what they aimed at, was the oneness of their language; so God says,
Genesis 11:6, “They all have one language; and this is what they begin to do: now nothing that they have imagined to do will be restrained from them.” In an ordinary way they will accomplish their wicked design. What course does God now take to obviate their conceived sin? Does he bring a flood upon them to destroy them, as in the old world some time before? Does he send his angel to cut them off, like the army of Sennacherib afterward? Does he by any means take away their lives? No; their lives are continued. But he “confounds their language,” so they cannot go on with their work, verse 7 — he takes away what their power consisted in. He proceeded in like manner with the Sodomites, Genesis 19:11. They were engaged in, and set upon the pursuit of, their filthy lusts. God strikes them with blindness, so they could not find the door, where they thought to use violence to compass their ends. Their lives were continued, and their will to sin; but their power was cut short and abridged. His dealing with Jeroboam, 1Kng 13:4, was of the same nature. He stretched out his hand to lay hold of the prophet, and it withered and became useless. This is an eminent way of the effectual acting of God’s providence in the world, for stopping that inundation of sin which would overflow all the earth if every womb of it were opened. He cuts men short of their moral power, by which they would effect it. By this means, many a wretch who has conceived mischief against the church of God, has been divested of his power by which he thought to accomplish it. Some have their bodies struck with diseases so they can no longer serve their lusts, or accompany them in perpetrating their folly; some are deprived of the instruments by which they would work. There has been for many days, enough sin conceived to root out the generation of the righteous from the face of the earth — if men had the strength and ability to do their will — if God had not cut off and shortened their power, and the days of their prevalence.
Psalms 64:6, “They search out iniquities; they accomplish a diligent search: both the inward thought of every one of them, and the heart, is deep.”
All things are in readiness; the design is well laid; their counsels are deep and secret; what now will hinder them from doing whatever they have imagined to do?
Psalms 64:7-8, “But God will shoot at them with an arrow; suddenly they will be wounded. So they will trip over their own tongue, to fall upon themselves.”
God meets with them, and brings them down, so they will not be able to accomplish their design. And this way of God’s preventing sin seems to be, at least ordinarily, specific to the men of the world; God deals this way with them every day, and leaves them to pine away in their sins. They go all their days filled with the iniquity they have conceived, and so greatly burdened that they cannot be delivered from it. The prophet tells us they practice the iniquity they had conceived, “because it is in the power of their hand. If they have power for it, they will accomplish it,” Micah 2:1.162 “They use their power to shed blood.” Ezekiel 22:6 This is the measure of their sinning: their power. Many of them do no more evil, and commit no more sin, than they can. Their whole restraint lies in being cut short in power, in one way or another. Their bodies will not serve them for their contrived uncleannesses, nor their hands for their revenge and rapine, nor their instruments for persecution; but they go burdened with their conceived sin, and are disquieted and tortured by it all their days. This is why they become, in themselves as well as to others, “a troubled sea that cannot rest,” Isaiah 57:20.
It may also be, in some cases — under some violent temptations, or in some mistakes — that God may thus obviate the accomplishment of conceived sin in his own people. There seems to be an instance of it in dealing with Jehoshaphat. He had designed, against the mind of God, to unite with Ahab, and send his ships with him to Tarshish; but God breaks apart his ships by a wind, so he could not accomplish what he designed. But in God’s dealing with his own in this way, there is a difference from the same dispensation towards others; for —
1st. It is only so in cases of extraordinary temptation. When, through the violence of temptation and the craft of Satan, they are hurried out from under the conduct of the law of grace, God one way or another takes away their power, or may do so, that they will not be able to execute what they designed. But this is an ordinary way of dealing with wicked men. This hook of God is upon them in the whole course of their lives; and they struggle with it, being “like a wild bull in a net,” Isaiah 51:20. God’s net is upon them, and they are filled with fury that they cannot do all the wickedness they would.
2dly. God does not do it to leave them to wrestle with sin, and to attempt other ways to accomplish it upon failing in what they were engaged in; but by their disappointment, he awakens them to think about their condition and what they are doing, and so he consumes sin in the womb by the ways that will be insisted on afterward. Some men’s deprivation of power for committing conceived, contrived sin has been sanctified to the point of changing their hearts from all dalliances with that or other sins.
[3.] God providentially hinders the bringing forth of conceived sin by opposing an external hindering power to sinners. He leaves them their lives, and he leaves them power to do what they intend; only he raises up an opposite power to coerce, forbid, and restrain them.
We have an instance of this in 1 Samuel 14:45. Saul had sworn that Jonathan would be put to death; and as far as it appears, he went on resolutely to have slain him. God stirs up the spirit of the people; they oppose themselves to the wrath and fury of Saul, and Jonathan is delivered. So also in 2 Chronicles 26:16-20, when king Uzziah would have offered incense himself, contrary to the law, eighty men of the priests resisted him, and drove him out of the temple. And to this heading are to be referred all the assistance which God stirs up to deliver his people against the fury of persecutors. He raises up saviours or deliverers on mount Zion, “to judge Mount Edom.” So in Revelation 12:16, the dragon, and those acting under him and spirited by him, were in a furious endeavor to destroy the church; God stirs up the earth to the Church’s assistance, even men of the world who are not engaged with others in the design of Satan. And by their opposition, he hinders them from executing their designed rage.
God’s dealing with his own people in Hosea 2:6-7, seems to be of this nature. They were in pursuit of their iniquities, following after their lovers. God leaves them for a while to act in the folly of their spirits; but he sets a hedge and a wall before them, so they will not be able to fulfill their designs and lusts.
[4.] God obviates the accomplishment of conceived sin by removing or taking away the objects on whom, or about whom, the sin conceived was to be committed. Acts 12:1-11 yields us a signal instance of this issue of providence. When the day was coming in which Herod thought to slay Peter, who was then shut up in prison, God sends for and takes him away from their rage, and from their lying in wait. So also our Saviour was taken away from the murderous rage of the Jews before his hour had come, John 8:59, John 10:39. Both primitive and latter times are full of stories to this purpose. Prison doors have been opened, and poor creatures appointed to die have been frequently rescued from the jaws of death. In the world itself, among its men, adulterers and adulteresses, the sin of one is often hindered and stifled by taking away the other. So wings were given to the woman, to carry her into the wilderness, and to disappoint the world in the execution of their rage, Revelation 12:14.
[5.] God does this by some eminent diversions of the thoughts of men who had conceived sin. In Genesis 37:24, Joseph’s brothers threw him into a pit, with the intent to starve him there. While they were, it seems, pleasing themselves with what they had done, God orders a company of merchants to come by; with that new object, he diverts their thoughts from killing their brother, to selling him, verses 25-27; we know how far they were subservient in this to the infinitely wise counsel of God. Thus also when Saul was in pursuit of David, and was even ready to prevail against him to his destruction, God stirs up the Philistines to invade the land, which both diverted Saul’s thoughts, and drew the course of his actions another way, 1 Samuel 23:27 163
These are some of the ways by which God is pleased to hinder the bringing forth of conceived sin, by opposing himself and his providence to the power of the sinning creature. And we may, in our passage, take a brief view of the great advantages to faith and the church of God which may be found in this matter; such as —
1st. This may give us a little insight into the ever-to-be-adored providence of God, by these and similar ways, in great variety, obstructing the breaking forth of sin in the world. It is God who makes those dams, and shuts up those flood-gates of corrupted nature, so that it will not break forth in a deluge of filthy abominations, to overwhelm the creation with confusion and disorder. As it was of old, so it is at this day:
Genesis 6:5, “Every thought and imagination of the heart of man is evil, and that continually.” The fact that the entire earth is not filled with violence, as it was of old, is merely from the mighty hand of God working effectually to obstruct sin. It is from this alone that the highways, streets, and fields are not all filled with violence, blood, rapine, uncleanness, and every villainy that the heart of man can conceive. Oh, the infinite beauty of divine wisdom and providence in God’s governance of the world! For its conservation takes no less power and wisdom daily, than first making the world required.
2dly. If we will look to our own concerns, they will in a special way force us to adore the wisdom and efficacy of the providence of God in stopping the progress of conceived sin. The fact that we are at peace in our houses, at rest in our beds, that we have any quiet in our enjoyments, is from this alone. Whose person would not be defiled or destroyed — whose habitation would not be ruined — whose blood, almost, would not be shed — if wicked men had the power to perpetrate all their conceived sin? It may be that the ruin of some of us has been conceived a thousand times. We are obliged to this providence of obstructing sin, for our lives, our families, our estates, our liberties, for whatever is or may be dear to us; for may we not say sometimes, with the psalmist,
Psalms 57:4. “My soul is among lions: and I lie even among those who are set on fire, even the sons of men, whose teeth are spears and arrows, and their tongue a sharp sword?” And how is the deliverance of men contrived from such persons?
Psalms 58:6, “God breaks their teeth in their mouths, even the great teeth of the young lions.”
He keeps this fire from burning, or quenches it when it is ready to burst into flame. He breaks their spears and arrows, so that sometimes we aren’t so much as wounded by them. Some he cuts off and destroys; some he cuts short in their power; some he deprives of the instruments by which alone they can work; some he prevents their desired opportunities, or he diverts them by providing other objects for their lusts; and oftentimes he causes them to spend them among themselves, upon one another. We may say, therefore, with the psalmist,
Psalms 104:24 “O LORD, how manifold are your works! In wisdom you have made them all: the earth is full of your riches;” And with the prophet we may say,
Hosea 14:9, “Who is wise, and will understand these things? Who is prudent, and would know them? All the ways of the LORD are right, and the just walk in them: but transgressors fall in them.”
3dly. If these and their like are the ways by which God obviates bringing forth conceived sin in wicked men, we may learn from this how miserable their condition is, and in what perpetual torment, for the most part, they spend their days. They “are like a troubled sea,” says the Lord, “that cannot rest.” Isaiah 57:20 As they endeavor that others may have no peace, so it is certain that they themselves do not have any; the principle of sin is not impaired or weakened in them, the will to sin is not taken away. They have a womb of sin that is able to conceive monsters every moment. Indeed, for the most part they are forging and framing folly all day long. They are contriving how to satisfy one lust or another. They are either devouring by malice and revenge, or vitiating by uncleanness, or trampling on by ambition, or swallowing by covetousness, all who stand before them. Many of their follies and mischiefs they bring to the verge of birth, and are in pain to be delivered; but every day God fills them with disappointment, and shuts up the womb of sin. Some are filled with hatred of God’s people all their days, and never once have an opportunity to exercise it. So David describes them,
Psalms 59:6-7 “They return at evening: they make a noise like a dog, and go all around the city. They belch with their mouth: swords are in their lips.” And yet they are not able to accomplish their designs. What tortures such poor creatures live in! Envy, malice, wrath, revenge, devour their hearts by not getting vent. And when God has exercised the other acts of his wise providence in cutting short their power, or opposing a greater power to them — when nothing else will do — he cuts them off in their sins, and they go to the grave, full of their purposes of iniquity. Others are no less hurried and diverted by the power of their lusts, which they are not able to satisfy. This is the sore travail that they are exercised with all their days: — if they accomplish their designs they are more wicked and hellish than before; and if they do not accomplish them, they are filled with vexation and discontentment. This is the portion of those who do not know the Lord or the power of his grace. Do not envy their condition. Notwithstanding their outward, glittering show, their hearts are full of anxiety, trouble, and sorrow.
4thly. Do we sometimes see the floodgates of men’s lusts and rage set open against the church and its interest, and does prevalence attend them, and is power on their side for a season? Do not let the saints of God despond. He has unspeakably various and effectual ways to stifle their conceptions, to give them dry breasts and a miscarrying womb. He can stop their fury when he pleases. “Surely,” says the psalmist,” the wrath of man shall praise you: the remainder of wrath you shall restrain,” Psalms 76:10 — only as much of their wrath is let out as will exalt his praise; he can when he pleases, set up a power greater than the combined strength of all sinning creatures, and restrain the remainder of the wrath that they conceived. Psalms 76:12, “He shall cut off the spirit of princes: he is terrible to the kings of the earth.” Some he will cut off and destroy, some he will terrify and frighten, and prevent the rage of all. He can knock them on the head, or break out their teeth, or chain up their wrath. And who can oppose him? Job 11:10
5thly. Those who have benefited by any of the ways mentioned may know to whom they owe their preservation, and not look at it as a common thing. When you have conceived sin, has God weakened your power to sin, or denied you the opportunity, or taken away the object of your lusts, or diverted your thoughts by new providences? — then know assuredly that you have received mercy by that. Though God does not always deal with these providences in subservience to the covenant of grace, yet there is always mercy in them, always a call in them to consider their author. If God had not thus dealt with you, it may be that this day you would have been a terror to yourselves, a shame to your relations, and under the punishment due to some notorious sins which you conceived. Besides, there is usually an additional guilt in sin that is brought forth, above what there is in the mere conception of it. It may be that others would have been ruined by it here, or drawn into a partnership in sin by it, and thus have been eternally ruined by it. All of this was prevented by these providences; and eternity will witness that there is a singular mercy in them. Don’t look at such things, then, as common accidents; the hand of God is in them all, and that is a merciful hand if not despised. If it is, God yet does good to others by it: the world is the better for it; and you are not as wicked as you would be.
6thly. We may also see from this the great use of magistracy in the world, that great appointment of God. Among other things, it is specifically subservient to this holy providence, in obstructing the bringing forth of conceived sin — namely, by the terror of the one that bears the sword. God fixes that on the hearts of evil men, which he expresses here:
Romans 13:4, “If you do what is evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain: for he is the minister of God, a revenger to execute wrath upon those who do evil.”
God fixes this on the hearts of men; and by the dread and terror of it, he closes the womb of sin, so that it will not bring forth. When there was no king in Israel, none to put to rebuke, and none whom evil men were afraid of, there was woeful work and havoc among the children of men made in the world, as we may see in the last chapters of the book of Judges. The greatest mercies and blessings that we are made partakers of in this world, next to those of the gospel and covenant of grace, come to us through this channel and conduit. And, indeed, this we have been speaking about is the proper work of magistracy — namely, to be subservient to the providence of God in obstructing the bringing forth of conceived sin.
These, then, are some of the ways by which God providentially prevents the bringing forth of sin: by opposing obstacles to the power of the sinner. And [yet] sin is not consumed by them, but only sealed in the womb. Men are not burdened for it, but with it; they are not laden in their hearts and consciences with its guilt, but perplexed with its power, which they are not able to exert and satisfy.
(2.) The way that still remains for our consideration — by which God obviates the production of conceived sin — is his working on the will of the sinner, so as to make sin be consumed in the womb. There are two ways in general by which God thus prevents bringing forth conceived sin by working on the will of the sinner; and they are —
[1.] By restraining grace;
[2.] By renewing grace.
He does it sometimes one way, and sometimes the other. The first of these is common to regenerate and unregenerate persons; the latter is specific to believers. God does it variously, as to their particulars, by them both. We will begin with the first of them: —
[1.] God does this by way of restraining grace, by some arrow of particular conviction, fixed in the heart and conscience of the sinner, in reference to the particular sin which he had conceived. This staggers and changes the mind as to the particular sin intended; it causes the hands to hang down and the weapons of lust to fall out of them. Hereby conceived sin proves to be abortive. How God does this work — by what immediate touches, strokes, blows, and rebukes of his Spirit — by what reasonings, arguments, and commotions of men’s own consciences — is not for us to find out thoroughly. It is done, as said, in unspeakable variety; and the works of God are past finding out. But it will be insisted on as to what light may be given to it from Scripture instances, after we have manifested the general way of God’s procedure.
Thus then, God dealt in the case of Esau and Jacob. Esau had long conceived his brother’s death; he comforted himself with thoughts of it, and resolutions about it, Genesis 27:41 164 which is the way of profligate sinners. At his first opportunity he comes forth to execute his intended rage, and Jacob concludes he would “attack the mother with the children,” Genesis 32:11 165 An opportunity is presented to this wicked and profane person to bring forth that sin that had now lain in his heart twenty years; he has full power in his hand to perform his purpose. In the midst of this posture of things, God comes in upon his heart with some secret and effectual working of his Spirit and power, changes him from his purpose, and causes his conceived sin to melt away, so that he falls with embraces upon the neck of the one whom he thought to slay.166 Of the same nature, though the way of it was peculiar, was his dealing with Laban the Syrian, in reference to the same Jacob, Genesis 31:24.167 By a dream, a vision in the night, God keeps Laban from so much as speaking roughly to him. It was with him as in Micah 2:1 : he had devised evil on his bed; and when he thought to practice it in the morning, God interposed in a dream, and hides sin from him,168 as he says here:
Job 33:15 In a dream, in a vision of the night, When deep sleep falls upon men, While slumbering on their beds, 16 Then He opens the ears of men, And seals their instruction. 17 That he may withdraw man from his purpose, And hide pride from man.” To the same purpose is that saying of the psalmist concerning the people of God:
Psalms 106:46, “He made them to be pitied of all those that carried them captives.”
Men usually deal rigorously with those whom they have taken captive in war. It was the way of old to rule captives with force and cruelty. Here God turns and changes their hearts, not in general as to himself, but in this particular: with respect to his people. And by this way in general, God every day prevents the bringing forth of a world of sin. He sharpens arrows of conviction on the spirits of men as to the particular they are engaged in. Their hearts are not changed as to sin, but their minds are altered as to this or that particular sin. They may break the vessel they fashioned, and set to work on some other vessel. Now, so that we may see a little into the ways by which God accomplishes this work, we must premise the ensuing considerations: —
1st. That the general medium in which the matter of restraining grace consists, and by which God thus prevents the bringing forth of sin, lies in certain arguments and reasonings presented to the mind of the sinner, by which he is induced to desert his purpose, to change and alter his mind, as to the sin he had conceived. Reasons against it are presented to him, which prevail upon him to relinquish his design and give up his purpose. This is the general way that restraining grace works — it is by arguments and reasonings rising up against the perpetration of conceived sin.
2dly. That no arguments or reasonings as such, materially considered, are sufficient to stop or hinder any purpose of sinning, or to cause conceived sin to prove abortive, if the sinner has the power and opportunity to bring it forth. They are not in themselves, and on their own account, restraining grace. For if they were, the administration and communication of grace, as grace, would be left to every man who is able to give advice against sin. Nothing is or can be called grace, though common and perishable, apart from its peculiar relation to God.169 God, by the power of his Spirit, in making arguments and reasons effectual and prevailing, turns a thing of this kind to grace, which in itself, and in its own nature, was bare reason. That efficacy of the Spirit which the Lord puts forth in these persuasions and motives, is what we call restraining grace. These things being premised, we will now consider some of the arguments we find that he has made use of to this end and purpose: —
(1st.) God stops many men in their ways, upon the conception of sin, by an argument taken from the difficulty, if not the impossibility, of doing that they aim at. They have a mind to do it, but God sets a hedge and a wall before them, so that they will judge it to be so hard and difficult to accomplish what they intend, that it is better for them to let it alone and give up. Thus Herod would have put John Baptist to death at the first provocation, but he feared the multitude, because they considered him a prophet, Matthew 14:5. Herod had conceived John’s murder, and was free to execute it. But God raised this consideration in his heart, “If I kill him, the people will riot; he has a great party among them, and sedition will arise that may cost me my life or kingdom.” He feared the multitude, and dared not execute the wickedness he had conceived, because of the difficulty he foresaw he would be entangled with. And God made the argument effectual for the time being; for otherwise we know that men will risk the utmost hazards to satisfy their lusts, as Herod did afterward. The Pharisees were in the very same state and condition, Matthew 21:26. They would have decried the ministry of John, but dared not for fear of the people; and, verse 46 of the same chapter, by the same argument, they were deterred from killing our Saviour, who had highly provoked them by a parable depicting their deserved and approaching destruction. They dared not do it for fear of unrest among the people, seeing that they looked at him as a prophet. Thus God overawes the hearts of innumerable persons in the world every day, and causes them to desist from attempting to bring forth the sins which they conceived. Difficulties they are sure to meet with, indeed are likely if they attempt it, would make it impossible for them to accomplish their sin.
We owe much of our quiet in this world to the efficacy given to this consideration in the hearts of men by the Holy Ghost; adulteries, rapines, murders, are obviated and stifled by it. Men would engage in them daily, except that they judge it impossible for them to fulfill what they aim at.
(2dly.) God does it by an argument taken ab incommodo — from the inconveniences, evils, and troubles that will befall men in the pursuit of sin. If they follow it, this or that inconvenience will ensue — this trouble, this evil, temporal or eternal. And this argument, as managed by the Spirit of God, is the great engine in his hand by which he throws up banks and gives bounds to the lusts of men, so that they do not break out to the confusion of all that order and beauty which yet remains in the works of his hands. Paul gives us the general import of this argument,
Romans 2:14-15, “For when the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these who do not have the law, are a law to themselves: who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and their thoughts meanwhile accusing or else excusing one another.”
If any men in the world may be thought to be given up to pursue and fulfill all the sins that their lusts can conceive, it is those who do not have the law, to whom the written law of God does not denounce the evil that attends it. “But though they do not have it,” says the apostle, “they show its work; they do many things which it requires, and forbear or abstain from many things that it forbids; and so they show its work and efficacy.” But why is it that they do so? Why, their thoughts accuse or excuse them. It is from the consideration and arguings that they have within themselves about sin and its consequents, which prevail upon them to abstain from many things that their hearts would carry them to; for conscience is a man’s prejudging of himself with respect to the future judgment of God. Thus Felix was staggered in his pursuit of sin, when he trembled at Paul’s preaching of righteousness and of the judgment to come, Acts 24:25.170 So too, Job tells us that the consideration of punishment from God has a strong influence on the minds of men to keep them from sin, Job 31:1-3.171 How the Lord makes use of that consideration, even towards his own, when they have broken the cords of his love and thrown off the rule of his grace for a time, I have declared before.
(3dly.) God does this same work by making effectual an argument ab inutili — from the unprofitableness of the thing that men are engaged in., Joseph’s brothers were stayed by this from slaying him: Genesis 37:26-27, “What profit is it,” they say, “if we slay our brother, and conceal his blood?” — we will get nothing by it; it will bring in no advantage or satisfaction to us. And the categories of this way by which God obstructs conceived sin, or the springs of these kinds of arguments, are so many and various, that it is impossible to insist particularly on them. There is nothing present or to come, nothing belonging to this life or another, nothing desirable or undesirable, nothing good or evil, that at one time or another, an argument may not be taken from it to obstruct sin.
(4thly.) God accomplishes this work by arguments taken ab honesto — from what is good and honest, what is pleasing, praiseworthy, and acceptable to himself. This is the great road in which he walks with the saints under their temptations, or in their conceptions of sin. He effectually restores to their minds a consideration of all those springs and motives to obedience which are revealed and proposed in the gospel, some at one time, some at another. He reminds them of his own love, mercy, and kindness — his eternal love, with its fruits, which they themselves have been made partakers of; he reminds them of the blood of his Son, his cross, sufferings, tremendous undertaking in the work of mediation, and the concerns of his heart, love, honor, and name, in their obedience; he reminds them of the love of the Spirit, with all his consolations, which they have been made partakers of, and the privileges which they have been intrusted with by him; he reminds them of the gospel, the glory and beauty of it, as it is revealed to their souls; he reminds them of the excellence and attractiveness of obedience — of their performance of that duty which they owe to God — of that peace, quietness, and serenity of mind that they have enjoyed in it. On the other side, he reminds them that sin is a provocation to the eyes of his glory, saying in their hearts, “Do not do that abominable thing which my soul hates;” he reminds them of their wounding the Lord Jesus Christ, and putting him to shame — of their grieving the Holy Spirit, by whom they are sealed to the day of redemption — of their defiling his dwelling-place; he reminds them of the reproach, dishonor, and scandal which they bring upon the gospel and its profession; he reminds them of the terrors, darkness, wounds, and lack of peace that they may bring upon their own souls. From these and similar considerations, God puts a stop to the law of sin in the heart, so that it will not go on to bring forth the evil which it conceived.
I could give instances of all these several kinds recorded in the Scripture, but it would be too long a work for us — we are now engaged in a design of another nature. But one or two examples may be mentioned. Joseph resists his first temptation on one of these accounts: Genesis 39:9, “How can I do this great wickedness, and sin against God?” The evil of sinning against God, his God, that consideration alone detains him from the least inclination to this temptation. ‘It is sin against God, to whom I owe all obedience, the God of my life and of all my mercies. I will not do it.’ The argument by which Abigail prevailed with David to keep him from self-revenge and murder, was of the same nature; and he acknowledges that it was from the Lord.172 I will add no more; for all the Scripture motives which we have to duty, made effectual by grace, are instances of this way of God’s proceeding.
Sometimes, I confess, God secretly works the hearts of men by his own finger — without the use and means of such arguments as those insisted on — to stop the progress of sin. So he tells Abimelech, Genesis 20:6, “I have withheld you from sinning against me.” Now, this could not be done by any of the arguments which we insisted on, because Abimelech did not know that the thing he intended was sin; and therefore he pleads that he did it in the “integrity of his heart and innocence of his hands”, verse 5. God turned around his will and thoughts, so that he would not accomplish his intention; but by what ways or means God did so is not revealed. Nor is it evident what course he took in changing Esau’s heart when he came out against his brother to destroy him, Genesis 33:4. It is not known whether God stirred up in him a fresh spring of natural affection, or caused him to consider what grief he would bring to his aged father by this means, who loved him so tenderly; or whether, having now grown great and wealthy, he more and more ignored the differences between him and his brother, and so he utterly slighted it. It may be that God did it by an immediate, powerful act of his Spirit upon his heart, without any actual intervening of these or any like considerations. Now, though the things mentioned are feeble and weak in themselves, and at other times, yet when they are managed by the Spirit of God to such an end and purpose, they certainly become effectual, and they are the matter of his preventing grace.
[2.] God prevents the bringing forth of conceived sin by real spiritual saving grace, and that is either in the first conversion of sinners, or in the following supplies of it: —
1st. This is one part of the mystery of his grace and love. He sometimes meets men, in their highest resolutions for sin, with the highest efficacy of his grace. By this, God manifests the power of his own grace, and gives the soul a further experience of the law of sin, when the soul takes such a farewell of sin as to be changed in the midst of its resolutions to serve its lusts. By this, God melts down the lusts of men, causes them to wither at the root, so that they will no more strive to bring forth what they have conceived, but instead be filled with shame and sorrow at their conception. We have an example and instance in Paul of this sort of proceeding of God, for the use and instruction of all generations. Paul’s heart was full of wickedness, blasphemy, and persecution; his conception of them had come to rage and madness, and a full purpose to exercise them all to the utmost: so the story is related in Acts 9; Paul himself declares it was so with him, Acts 26:9-12, 1 Timothy 1:13. In the midst of all this violent pursuit of sin, a voice from heaven shuts up the womb and dries its breasts, and he cries, “Lord, what will you have me do?” Acts 9:6. He seems to intimate that this is the way God proceeds with others, even to meet them with his converting grace in the height of their sin and folly. For Paul himself, he says, was a pattern of God’s dealing with others — as God dealt with him, so would he also do with like sinners:
1 Timothy 1:16 “For this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first, Jesus Christ might show all long-suffering, as a pattern to those who would hereafter believe in him to life everlasting.” And there are not a few examples of it in our own days. Various persons who were going to this or that place, with a set purpose to deride and scoff at the dispensation of the word, have been met with in the very place in which they intended to serve their lusts and Satan, and have been thrown down at the foot of God. This way of God’s dealing with sinners is set forth at large in Job 33:15-18.173 Dionysius the Areopagite is another instance of this work of God’s grace and love. Paul is dragged either by him or before him, to plead for his life, as “a proclaimer of strange gods,” which at Athens was death by the law. In the midst of this frame of spirit, God meets with Dionysius by converting grace; sin withers in the womb, and he clings to Paul and his doctrine, Acts 17:18-34. We have a similar dispensation towards Israel in Hosea 11:7-10.174 But there is no need to insist on more instances of this observation. God is pleased to leave no generation unconvinced of this truth, if they only attend to their own experiences and the examples of this work of his mercy among them. Every day, one person or other is taken in the fullness of the purpose of his heart to go on in sin, in this or that sin, and is stopped in his course by the power of converting grace.
2dly. God does it by renewed communications of the same grace; that is, by special assisting grace. This is his common way of dealing with believers in this case, who through the deceitfulness of sin, may be carried on to conceiving this or that sin, as declared before. God puts a stop to their progress, or rather to the prevalence of the law of sin in them; and that is done by giving them special assistances necessary for their preservation and deliverance. As David says of himself in Psalms 73:2, “His feet were almost gone, his steps had well-near slipped” — he was at the very brink of unbelieving, despairing thoughts and conclusions about God’s providence in the government of the world, from which he was recovered, as he afterwards declares. So it is with many a believer: he is oftentimes at the very brink, at the very door of some folly or iniquity, when God provides the efficacy of actually assisting grace, and recovers them to an obediential frame of heart again. And this is a peculiar work of Christ, in which he manifests and exerts his faithfulness towards his own: Hebrews 2:18, “He is able to help those who are tempted.” What is intended is not an absolute power, but a power clothed with mercy — that is, such a power as is exerted from a sense of the suffering of poor believers under their temptations. And how does he exercise this merciful ability towards us? Hebrews 4:16, he gives out, and we find in him, “grace to help in time of need,” — timely help and assistance for our deliverance, when we are ready to be overpowered by sin and temptation. When lust has conceived, and is ready to bring forth — when the soul lies at the brink of some iniquity — he gives out seasonable help, relief, deliverance, and safety. Here lies a great part of the care and faithfulness of Christ towards his poor saints. He will not allow them to be torn with the power of sin, nor be carried to ways that will dishonor the gospel, or fill them with shame and reproach, and thus render them useless in the world. Rather, he steps in with the saving relief and assistance of his grace, stops the course of sin, and makes them, in himself, more than conquerors. And this assistance lies under the promise:
1 Corinthians 10:13, “No temptation has taken you except such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able; but with the temptation, he will also make a way to escape, that you may be able to bear it,”
Temptation will test us — it is for our good; the Lord compasses and brings about many holy ends by it. But when we are tried to the utmost of our ability, so that one assault more would overbear us, a way of escape is provided. This may be done several ways, as I declared elsewhere; and this one that we are now focused on is one of the most eminent — namely, by supplies of grace to enable the soul to bear up, resist, and conquer. Once God begins to deal with a soul in this way of love, he will not cease to add one supply after another, until the whole work of His grace and faithfulness is accomplished. We have an example of this in Isaiah 57:17, 18.175 Poor sinners there are so far captivated by the power of their lusts, that the first and second dealings of God with them are not effectual for their delivery. But he will not surrender them; he is in the pursuit of a design of love towards them, and so he does not cease until they are recovered.
These are the general heads of the second way by which God hinders the bringing forth of conceived sin — namely, by working on the will of the sinner. He does it either by common convictions or by special grace, so that of their own accord, they will let go of the purpose and will of sinning that they have risen to. And this is no lowly way to provide for his own glory, and the honor of his gospel in the world — whose professors would stain the whole beauty of it if they were left to themselves to bring forth all the evil conceived in their hearts.
3dly. Besides these general ways, there is one still more special, that at once works both on the power and will of the sinner, and this is the way of afflictions; concerning this, one word will close this discourse. Afflictions, I say, work by both these ways in reference to conceived sin. They work providentially on the power of the creature. When a man has conceived a sin, and is in full purpose to pursue it, God oftentimes sends a sickness and abates his strength; or a loss cuts him short in his plenty, and so it takes him away from the pursuit of his lusts, even though it may be that his heart is not weaned from them. His power is weakened, and he cannot do the evil he would do. In this sense, it belongs to the first way of God’s obviating the production of sin. Great afflictions sometimes do not work immediately and directly from their own nature, but from the gracious purpose and intent of the one who sends them. He insinuates into the dispensation of them, that grace and power, that love and kindness, which will effectually take the heart and mind away from sin: Psalms 119:67, “Before I was afflicted I went astray, but now have I kept your word.” And in this way, because of the predominance of renewing and assisting grace, they belong to the latter means of preventing sin.
These are some of the ways we will instance at present, in which it pleases God to put a stop to the progress of sin, both in believers and unbelievers. And if we endeavored further to search out his ways to perfection, we must still conclude that it is but a “little portion which we know of him.” Job 26:14